How We Think

Front Cover
D.C. Heath & Company, 1910 - Thought and thinking - 224 pages
 

Contents

I
1
III
14
IV
29
V
45
VI
56
VII
68
X
79
XI
101
XIII
135
XIV
145
XV
157
XVII
170
XVIII
188
XIX
201
XX
214
Copyright

XII
116

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Page 24 - ... their parents, nurses, or those about them: which being insinuated into their unwary as well as unbiassed understandings, and fastened by degrees, are at last (equally whether true or false) riveted there by long custom and education, beyond all possibility of being pulled out again.
Page 179 - I mean such a use of them as may serve to convey the precise notions of things, and to express in general propositions certain and undoubted truths, which the mind may rest upon, and be satisfied with, in its search after true knowledge.
Page 13 - As we shall see later, the most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquiring the attitude of suspended conclusion, and in mastering the various methods of searching for new materials to corroborate or to refute the first suggestions that occur. To maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry — these are the essentials of thinking.
Page 25 - Let ever so much probability hang on one side of a covetous man's reasoning, and money on the other ; it is easy to foresee which will outweigh.
Page 31 - The eye it cannot choose but see; We cannot bid the ear be still; Our bodies feel, where'er they be, Against or with our will. Nor less I deem that there are Powers Which of themselves our minds impress; That we can feed this mind of ours In a wise passiveness.
Page 6 - Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends constitutes reflective thought.
Page 19 - Temples have their sacred images, and we see what influence they have always had over a great part of mankind. But, in truth, the ideas and images in men's minds are the visible powers that constantly govern them, and to these they all universally pay a ready submission.
Page 78 - Each case has to be dealt with as it arises, on the basis of its importance and of the context in which it occurs. To take too much pains in one case is as foolish — as illogical — as to take too little in another. At one extreme, almost any conclusion that insures prompt and unified action may be better than any long delayed conclusion; while at the other, decision may have to be postponed for a long period — perhaps for a lifetime. The trained mind is the one that best grasps the degree of...
Page 72 - Upon examination, each instance reveals, more or less clearly, five logically distinct steps: (i) a felt difficulty; (ii) its location and definition; (iii) suggestion of possible solution; (iv) development by reasoning of the bearings of the suggestion; (v) further observation and experiment leading to its acceptance or rejection; that is, the conclusion of belief or disbelief.
Page 18 - To draw inferences has been said to be the great business of life. Every one has daily, hourly, and momentary need of ascertaining facts which he has not directly observed ; not from any general purpose of adding to his stock of know[ ledge, but because the facts them!

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